Tuesday, 18 November 2014

The Goa Inquisition - Portuguese India 02

The principle of the Inquisition was murderous ... The popes were not only murderers in the great style, but they also made murder a legal basis of the Christian Church and a condition for salvation.

...... Lord Acton (1834-1902

Having
been converted to Christianity long ago and still attached
to some of their old Hindu customs, those natives, who refused to give up
their age-old ancient Hindu practices, were declared apostates and
heretics and condemned to death and it became a matter of serious
concern. Such dreadful circumstances forced many to leave Goa in
fear of facing death and torture by the fanatics and settle in the
neighboring kingdoms. Among them, minority went to the Deccan and the
vast majority went to Canara
– now Karnataka.
Majority of them preferred to settle down in Mangalore and other
neighboring places. A section of Konkani Brahmin went as far as Kochi, Kerala.

Historian
Severine Silva reasons that the fact that these Catholics who fled
the Inquisition did not abandon their Christian faith because they
simply wanted to observe their traditional Hindu customs along with
their new-found Catholic practices.

In
stark contrast to the Portuguese priests' earlier intense study of
the Konkani
language
and its cultivation as a communication medium in their missionary
works, particularly conversion during the previous century, under the
Inquisition blindly serious steps were followed to isolate new
converts from the non-Christian populations. The use of Konkani was
suppressed, while the colony suffered repeated attacks from the
neighboring Maratha rulers, their onslaughts aggravated the
prevailing situation there. These posed a serious threat to
Portuguese control of Goa, and its maintenance of trade in India. Due
to the Maratha
threat, Portuguese authorities began to initiate a positive program
to suppress Konkani in Goa. The use of Portuguese was enforced and
made compulsory, whereas Konkani was pushed to become a language of
marginal peoples.

Urged
by the Franciscans,
the Portuguese viceroy banned the use of Konkani on 27 June 1684 and
decreed that within three years, the local people in general would
speak the Portuguese
tongue.
They were to be required to use it in all their contacts and
contracts made in Portuguese territories. The penalties for violation
would be imprisonment. The decree was confirmed by the king on 17
March 1687. According to the Inquisitor António AmaralCoutinho's
letter to the Portuguese monarch João
V
in 1731, these draconian measures did not meet with success. With the
fall of the Province of the North (which included Bassein,
Chaul
and Salsette)
to the Marathas in 1739, the Portuguese renewed their assault on
Konkani. On 21 November 1745, Archbishop Lourenço de Santa Maria
decreed that applicants to the priesthood had to have knowledge of
and the ability to speak in Portuguese as confirmed by rigorous
examinations by reverend persons. Further more, the Bamonns
and Chardos
were required to learn Portuguese within six months, failing which
they would be denied the right to marriage. Because of the language
issue, the colonial government expelled the Jesuits
in 1761, as they had been for the promotion of Konkani to
communicate with the native peoples. In 1812, the Archbishop decreed
that children were to be prohibited from speaking Konkani in schools
and in 1847, this was extended to seminaries. In 1869, Konkani was
completely banned in schools.

An old book on History of the Inqusitio in Goa.credit: openlibrary.org

As
a result, Goans did not develop a literature in Konkani, nor could
the language unite the population, as several scripts (including
Roman, Devanagari and Kannada) were used to write it.Konkani became
the lingua
de criados
(language of the servants),while the Hindu and Catholic elites turned
to Marathi and Portuguese, respectively. Since India annexed Goa in
1961, Konkani has become the cement that binds all Goans across
caste, religion and class; it is affectionately termed Konkani
Mai
(Mother Konkani). The language received full recognition in 1987,
when the Indian government recognized Konkani as the official
language of Goa.

Historian
Alfredo de Mello describes the performers of Goan inquisition asnefarious,
fiendish, lustful, corrupt religious orders which pounced on Goa for
the purpose of destroying paganism (ie Hinduism) and introducing the
true religion of Christ."Goa
Inquisition was most merciless and cruel".
Rediff. 14 September 2005. Retrieved 14 April 2009.

Lables

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I am KN.Jayaraman, Retd Geologist, author of this blog. I have a strong passion for Ancient Indian Culture, art, architecture, etc...
I started this blog with a view to covering the above areas and also odd things related to India.
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